Apple and WWDC14: A New Era of Analytics and Attribution

A couple of days ago, in our summary of the WWDC14 keynote presentation, we wrongfully stated that we would have liked to see Apple announce more transparency and more advanced analytical features in iTunes Connect. This was without counting on the smaller developer sessions.

It turns out, our wish came true as they did announce just that.

In WWDC’s session on the new iTunes Connect, Apple announced that they had started offering both an analytics and attribution platform to developers through the iTunes Connect Console.

The video of the presentation can be accessed here and the underlying presentation there.

Here’s the gist of it:

Analytics

Through iTunes Connect, developers can now access the full conversion funnel throughout the user lifecycle, from App Store views to in-app purchases and drop-outs. In other words, developers are now able to track all relevant metrics for acquisition, engagement and retention.

Here’s the complete list of metrics tracked:

App Store Views (equivalent of an impression)

App Units (which stands for the number of sales, or the number of apps downloaded for one user account)

Installs (if the user has the app installed on several devices

Sessions

Active Devices

Retention

Stickiness (a single metric which combines acquisition and retention)

In-App Purchases

Average sales (Apple’s metric for average revenue per user or ARPU)

These metrics can also be broken down by geo and device type.

In particular, it should be noted that iTunes now offers retention data:

Attribution

Apple is taking on the attribution space head-on by allowing Provider ID Campaign ID, an addition to the App Store URL which allows developer to track the source of the install, both in terms of provider and and specific campaign.

Developers simply need to take the usual app URL such as https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/candy-crush-saga/id553834731?mt=8

They can then add both the Provider ID (ex: “pid=1234″) and Campaign ID (ex: “cid=My_Campaign”) at the end of the URL, which would then look like the following: